The present invention relates to highway traffic warning reflectors used by motorists to warn oncoming cars and trucks of the presence of their stopped vehicle on or alongside a roadway. More particularly, the present invention provides a simple, inexpensive reflective warning device for use by a stalled motorist.
Stationary vehicles on or alongside a roadway present a major traffic hazard, especially after dark. The vehicles may be highway work trucks used by road crews for highway maintenance, police cruisers aiding stalled motorists and motorists who stop on the highway or on the highway shoulder for various reasons. At night, especially on unlit roads and highways, the drivers of traveling vehicles have great difficulty in seeing the stopped vehicle and recognizing that it is not moving, even if the stopped vehicle""s taillights are flashing. On curving highways especially, it is difficult to perceive whether a vehicle is stopped in a driving lane or off on a shoulder until the approaching vehicle is dangerously close.
Recognizing the dangers inherent in stopping a vehicle on or alongside a roadway, experienced drivers such as truckers, road maintenance crews and policemen, typically carry devices to deploy behind a stopped vehicle to warn oncoming drivers. Expedients such as flares and reflective cones or triangular pyramids are in common use. While these devices are effective to warn oncoming drivers, they are relatively expensive, bulky to carry and, in the case of flares, not reusable. Moreover, if they are hit by an oncoming vehicle, they can cause damage to vehicles and injury to people who may be in the vicinity of the stalled vehicle.
It is the object of this invention to provide a highway warning device that is safe, effective, simple to deploy, reusable and inexpensive.
A further object of the invention is to provide such a device which is collapsible and requires little storage space when undeployed.
The invention comprises a collapsible, folding structure essentially in the form of a conventional paper shopping bag having a highly reflective exterior surface and support means for maintaining the bag in an open, upright position against wind and turbulence from passing vehicles. The support means may consist of one or more weights placed inside the open bag at its bottom and a cooperating rod or stick extending vertically from each weight to keep the bag from collapsing. A loop or other retaining means may be provided along the interior wall of the bag to secure the rod in its vertical position. The rod thus serves to maintain the bag upright and in its open condition. In lieu of a separate rod, the stiffening means may be incorporated in the bag structure itself
In its collapsed, stored condition, the bag itself is folded flat, in the manner of a typical shopping bag, with weights and rods kept in a separate container. The small volume occupied by the device in its undeployed state allows a number of them to be easily carried in the trunk of a police cruiser or civilian automobile.
The exterior surface of the collapsible bag is highly reflective at least in part, and may be imprinted with a suitable warning message. The reflective surface may be provided by use of a white pigmented paper or by an appropriate reflective or night-glow coating applied to the paper. In addition to serving as a highway warning device, the reflective bag, without the support means, may be carried by pedestrians walking after dark, to increase their visibility to motorists. This would be particularly useful to children making their xe2x80x9ctrick or treatxe2x80x9d rounds on Halloween.